Infant killing, wounding and predation in Eulemur and Lemur

Infant killing by primates is highly controversial. Sexual selection of inf anticidal males has been disputed especially for seasonally breeding specie s, in which death of an infant does not advance conception of the next infa nt. We report attacks, infants found wounded: and predation in seasonally b reeding Eulemur and Lemur at Berenty: Beta Mahafaly and Duke University Pri mate Center, and review cases seen elsewhere. Observed attacks leading to w ounds or death conservatively total twelve by extratroop males, two by troo p males, and seven by troop females. Eulemur ave occasional vertebrate pred ators, whose prey includes infant Lemur catta. Wounds inflicted by lemurs a re usually abdominal canine slashes or bites to the head with rare eating, a pattern distinct front carnivore and raptor kills. Infant killing as infe rred front corpses is more frequent than previously thought, but still rare . Adaptive advantages of killing plausibly include eliminating resource com petitors of females, and sexual selection on males.